♪ in the headlines this morning, richmond city council comes to a unanimous decision after funding to keep three local schools from closing for good. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in sunnyvale on the trail of an arsonist. investigators after a man they believe has set 15 fires, most recently nearly killed a man. they're looking for your help. the story's on the way. >> and bart is expected to get millions to push forward with a controversial plan to build a tram to the oakland airport. >> check out this picture of the embarcadero. a little less this morning thanks to the drizzle that fell during the overnight and will do so through the morning commute. where it hangs for the rest of the day, how much cooler on this

coolest day of the forecast. >> and traffic is really heavy now on the suspension span of the bay bridge because they're trying to push off a rig into san francisco. not much of a delay at the bay bridge toll plaza but keeping an eye on this and update on a hot spot through livermore. >> 6:01 this wednesday morning. updated information on all that in just a few minutes. thanks for joining us. i'm eric thomas. >> i'm kristen sze. you can see what frances is talking about, the traffic jam. right now let's begin with a reprieve for three richmond schools. they'll stay open one extra year after the city council approved spending, $1.5 million to keep them open. the unanimous vote came just before 11:30. it will keep kennedy high school and two elementary schools open through the 2011-2012 school year. the meeting was packed with worried parents and school district officials. richmond settled a tax lawsuit

with chevron for $114 million. so it has extra money to spend but the council also offered a warning to the school board. >> they gonna have to get their act together. we can no longer have the city of richmond be atm every time they have a problem and they threaten us with attempt to close schools. >> during a meeting, the school board president even argued that closing kennedy high would be dangerous because gang members from different parts of the city would be forced to mix together at remaining schools. >> getting our first look this morning at the sketch of a man wanted for questioning in a string of south bay arson fires. in one case he set a truck on fire while someone was sleeping inside. terry mcsweeney is live in sunnyvale with the story. how many fires are we up to now, terry? >> we've got 15 fires over the past several months and you just alluded to, this easily could be a homicide. working in the area where i am right now. this is old san francisco road

and south fair oaks. fire set in clusters and now we have a sketch of a person investigators want to talk to. take a look at this man described as hispanic, around 5 foot 9, maybe 20 years of age, a slender build seen running from one of the fires that was set a week ago today. the arson fires tend to occur in bunches. nine were set on september 1st and the most serious when the arsonist set a pickup truck on fire on old san francisco road, someone inside. police were there, rescued that man. since may this guy has set fire to trash, dumpsters, and two cars. >> people that tend to do this, they start out small and start gradually as they build up that comfort level, start building up the intensity and the dangerousness of what they're doing. again, that's why we're reaching out to the public because we're seeing the frequency of it and severity of it increasing. >> another look at the suspect. again, this comes to us based on

a description given by a firefighter who saw him running from those fires last wednesday. all the same area here in sunnyvale. fair oaks at old san francisco road over to garland road. investigators are also not ruling out the possibility because the fires in may and again last week were set in the same area, that this suspect lives somewhere in this area. live in sunnyvale, terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thanks a lot. it's 6:04. it's now been 90 days since a peninsula community activist was gunned down and today family, friends and neighbors will push police again to find his killer. the group plans a vigil at 5:40 tonight at the shopping mall in san mateo. that's where david lewis was shot to death three months ago. police made no arrests in the case. advocates will ask why no progress has been made. they want to make sure the case doesn't go cold. lewis worked with young people

to keep them from drugs and violence. >> the man charged with seriously wounding a fremont police officer will return to court tend of the month to enter a plea. half the fremont department, some 70 police officers, showed up for andrew barrientos' first appearance in an alameda county courtroom yesterday. the suspect the gang member shot officer todd young during a task force operation in oakland last month. young was working undercover. barrientos claims he never announced that he was a police officer. >> that's not true. i mean, i'm not gonna release information on the investigation but in trial we'll prove that's not true. >> officer young remains in a drug-induced coma. he faces more surgery. there will be another blood drive in in oakland for him today. >> san francisco supervisors are a little red in the face after a technical error kept them from meeting yesterday. the error was announced by a clerk just as the supervisors would have gavelled the meeting

into session. the problem, no public notice in a local newspaper. they require it be published 36 hours before any regularly scheduled meeting. the error was not discovered until after the long holiday weekend. >> metropolitan transportation commission meets this morning to decide if it should allocate $20 million in state funds to help pay for a bart connector to oakland international airport. a group of transit advocates held a protest yesterday against bart's plans to link its coliseum station to the oakland airport with a light rail system. organizers of the demonstration claim buses can move passengers to and from the airport faster and cheaper than bart's proposed railway. bart expects the system to cost near $500 million. >> you can take transit this morning, might be a good idea. those windshield wipers might be working. >> this may be a cue. it's time to change them out because the season will feature probably more rain later on

alet's get more from mike. >> good morning to you. notice the drizzle is flying under the radar literally this morning but thick enough to be measurable in the east bay valleys and also six hundredths of an inch here in san francisco. that's why our streets are coated with wetness this morning. take a look at these temperatures. doing okay as far as highs in the afternoon. comfortable, slightly cool in some areas because of the breeze and they'll drop about 5 to 10 degrees compared to yesterday. in fact, 10 to 20 degrees cooler than average. the coolest weather along the coast where the clouds most sub burn, all the way up to san francisco, 61. start to see pockets of sunshine develop around the bay shore where we'll have a partly sunny with mid to upper 60s. a little more sunshine san jose and 68. a little more around the north bay and east bay valleys and that's why you're around 70 degrees. you wanna take a look at the rest of the forecast? here it is. if you want warmer weather and sunshine we'll have it starting

tomorrow afternoon, 2 to 4 degrees warmer. jump another 4 to 6 degrees on friday and throughout the weekend into early next week we'll have 60 degree temperatures at the coast, low to mid-70s around the bay with afternoon sunshine. a mess this morning some parts of the bay. here's frances. >> two hot spots. one on the bay bridge. here's a live look at the incline section. traffic jammed because of a bus stalled. they pushed it off to folsom street so the folsom street off-ramp will be blocked a while. so far just a minor wait but there could be a domino effect. you may want to consider bart as kristen mentioned as well. here's another reason you wanna take mass transit. it's a mess getting out of tracy now through livermore because of a much earlier accident at airway. the big rig has been cleared but they're still waiting for the

cleanup crews just to clean up the fuel spill. and they're not gonna get there until about 6:45. so the drive time now over an hour as you make your drive from 205 to 680. that's around a 45-minute delay. eric, kristen. >> frances, thank you very much. 6:09. >> the controversial item being given to inmates at the san francisco county jail. >> genetically altered fish coming near a differenter table with you. >> whether he will burn copies of the karan to mark the september 11th terrorist attacks anniversary. >> ...berber carpet. it was a whole bowl of stew. nooo. why? i could have saved this one. i could have saved this one. ♪ call 1-800-steemer

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>> it's 6:12. thanks for joining us. the pastor of a small evangelical church in florida says he continues to pray to decide whether to burn copies of the karan on saturday. the reverend terry jones continues to hint that he will indeed go through with setting thousands of copies of the muslim holy book on fire on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks despite being condemned by the white house, officials, islamic leaders and u.s. military officials. his plan sparked protests and rallies around the globe. >> if we don't do it, when do we stop backing down? when do we stop giving into islam. >> muslims, black, blue, yellow. we are all americans and we need to stand together against ignorance and hate and division. >> bay area peace activists and muslim is organizing an

interfaith rally in san jose on friday. she says it will focus on the positive relationships across different religious groups. >> inmates in san francisco's county jail in san bruno now have access to condoms. 16 condom machines have been installed for about 750 prisoners. sex is illegal but health department leaders say it happens. it's the extension of a safe sex program that began 11 years ago, grants from ucsf and a nonprofit paid for the condom machines. >> this morning craigslist continues to face criticism even after it removed its adult services section in the u.s. connecticut's attorney general sxap -- and a number of nonprofits want to get rid of the adult services section globally. there are other craigslist erotic pages that promote

prostitution. last friday they replaced its u.s. adult services sections with the word sensored. >> bad news as you pour that first morning cup of coffee. you have to pay more. the wholesale price of coffee reached a 13-year high yesterday. $1.90 a pound. that's a 41% increase since just june. folgers and dunkin' donuts raised prices this week. a rough growing season for coffee beans. >> 6:15 now. the fda is closed to approving genetically altered salmon for your dinner plate saying it poses no threat to the ecosystem or humanity. take a look at these fish. they're the same age but the bigger one is genetically engineered. they say their salmon can grow twice as fast as regularly farmed salmon. the company has been waiting for government approval for years. a variety of critics are coming

out against it but some consumers say they're open to the idea. >> i would try it just to see what it tastes like. don't try, never know. yes, have a go. >> something genetically altered just to fit it on my menu and make someone happen? >> the genes from these frankenfish can be introduced into the wild because salmon can reproduce. >> the fda will hold public hearings on the issue and hand down their final decision in a couple of weeks. >> fishermen on some parts of the petaluma river will have to cast their lines somewhere else for the time being. the department of fish and game has banned fishing in an area where a tugboat leaked up to 600 gallons of fuel yesterday. the no fishing zone extends between the pay run street bridge and highway 101. the ban is precautionary. no evidence that wildlife has been harmed by the spill. >> what else can you add to that forecast? >> around the bay, too.

>> san francisco six hundredths. that has to be a daily record. flight arrival delays into sfo because of the clouds, the low ceiling, the drizzle. up to 50 minutes. our flight tracker is always there for you at abc7news.com at the bottom of our front page. yeah, that drizzle is as strong as we thought it would be and as widespread. watch out. the extra humidity in the air. don't see that very often, do we. upper 50s to low 60s. the cloud cover kept our temperatures up. the cooler spot. monterey bay, same temperatures, upper 50s to near 60. a lot of highlights today because there's so much changing in the forecast. more cloud cover today and the coolest day of the accu-weather seven-day forecast. coastal drizzle will linger through the afternoon hours. drying and clearing from north to south tonight as high pressure starts to move in and that sinking air will chase away the cold front and the drizzle.

the warmer and drier air will be brought by that high pressure just in time for the weekend. forces our highs, how about upper 60 to low 70s. partly sunny in the south bay. same type of temperatures, mid-60s. maybe a little cooler on the peninsula. mid to upper 60s. same type of cloud cover. we'll call is partly sunny. drizzle along the coast with mid-50s. downtown south san francisco, maybe a little sunshine. even drizzle this afternoon. sausalito same thing at 62. partly cloudy conditions over the north bay valleys and upper 60s to low 70s. drizzle and cloudy conditions at your coast with mid to upper 50s. partly sunny on the east bay shore with mid to upper 60s. partly cloudy in our inland areas of the east bay valleys with upper 60s to low 70s. best chance of organized rain or heavier drizzle this afternoon, the monterey bay with low to mid-60s and mid to upper 60s inland hollister, gilroy and morgan hill. tonight you see the clearing taking place and the cooler air santa rosa, 49 napa. san rafael 51. same with san francisco. the rest of us throw mid-50s.

watching the cold front. look how easy it is to pick up with that nice arcing motion of the clouds rising on the jet stream. the low moving into northern california bringing us the breezes and coolest day. kicking up showers to our north. dance around us to the north while we mainly focusen the drizzle along the coast as we head towards the overhours. this low starts to pull away. that's why we saw the clearing. means more sunshine and warmer weather but well below average. we'll see temperatures get back to average friday, kinds of hang out through the weekend in low to mid-80s inland and near 60 at the coast. sierra a great day. here's frances. very busy. >> very busy. want to mention a brand new accident in oakland. northbound 880 at 980. a lane is blocked and they're sending emergency crews. the one we've been watching all morning just keeps getting worse. it's westbound 580 airway because of a big rig accident. still waiting for a clearup crew

to arrive to open the left lane. backed up through the altamont pass and the drive time over an hour. that's about a 45 minute delay. you may want to take mass transit. ace and bart reporting no delays. a live look at the incline section of the bay bridge. still pretty slow because of a stalled bus in san francisco. they pushed it off the folsom street off-ramp. that's blocked but looks like the fremont open. things backing up beyond the end of the parking lot for most of the lanes. consider the san mateo as an alternate. no major delays here but a pretty wet ride 101 as you make your way up to san francisco. get the latest traffic conditions by going to abc7news.com. you'll find the bay area traffic link under abc 7 extras. >> 6:20. >> a doodle mystery deepens.

the hint of google altering its

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6:24. google is at it again with a new mystery doodle this morning. on the home page the google logo is in gray until you type in your search then the colors come to life. analysts believe it celebrating the live updating feature google has been testing. calls yesterday's doodle featuring moving balls fast, fun and interactive, again suggestive of live updates. the company has a big announcement at 10:30 this

morning in san francisco and we'll fill you in on midday news at 11:00. >> two new studies shedding light on facebook.com. one report dutch and american psychologists find students use the website while they study even intermittently will see grades drop 20% compared to people who do not study while on facebook.com. the site draws a large number of people with higher levels of narcissism and low levels of self-esteem. researchers at york university say facebook.com users see the site sas a means of self-promotion and promotion breaks down by gender. women are most likely to advance themselves via photographs while men do so in written postings. >> ahead at 6:30, why harder to park for free in san francisco. >> also does the gov have the power in the so-called furlough friday plan.

>> no agreements, no permission but now they have an architect. the latest step forward as the oakland a's continue to push for a move to the south bay. >> i'm terry mcsweeney live in sunnyvale where arson investigators are looking for your help in finding the person who has set 15 fires down here, nearly killed someone. they need to find him. they need your help. >> we have flight arrival delays into sfo nearly 50 minutes. connecting flights into dallas and departure delays over an hour from laguardia. >> an extra 45 minutes on the westbound 580 drive through livermore because of an accident through airway. the left lane won't be reopened until

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you by mancini sleepworld. it's now 6:29. the bell is ringing starting the trading day. investors try to brush off fresh worries about the health of european banks. the federal reserve is expected to release a report later today that could given further insight into the pace of the domestic recovery. live to the new york stock exchange in about 15 minutes. >> folks from inside the nfl. 6:30 now. a serial arsonist is on the lose but an important new clue could help track him down. terry mcsweeney is live in sunnyvale where this fire bug is believed to be responsible for at least 15 fires. terry, one could have caused serious injury or even death. >> absolutely could have. you're talking about the ones that he set last wednesday. nine fires set last wednesday,

all in the area near where i am. old san francisco road and south fair oaks. as a result of what he did last week, he was spotted or at least a suspect was spotted. and now there is a sketch of that suspect. let's take a look. a hispanic male, about 20 years of age, maybe 5 foot 9 with a slender build. this is a man seen running from those fires set last week by a firefighter. hispanic male, around 20, 5-9. one of those fires was a pickup truck with a man still inside of it. police rescued that man. a lot of apartment buildings out here in the arson area, people living in very close proximity to each other. one fire is everyone's worry and these people are very concerned. >> if you set a car on fire with somebody in it, you need to be stopped. >> a fire burned two pine trees and two mattresses and a vehicle. >> taking another look at the suspect. four full-time investigators are assigned to this case.

that's how important it is. they wanna find this guy and stop him before somebody does get hurt or worse. already one close call and the fires started with trash, went to the dumpsters and now vehicles. they are getting bigger and nine set just one week ago today. if you have seen that person, have any information for sunnyvale p. d. or fire, please give them a call. terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thank you. it's 6:32. the search continues for the body of a missing hercules man. police will return to the keller canyon landfill in pittsburgh for a six day of tedious sifting through garbage looking for evidence. volunteers searched yesterday without finding anything significant. they believe 35-year-old frederick sales was murdered with four other people by a 38-year-old. valdemoro was fatally shot by police following a high-speed chase. police think his body may have

been put in a trash dumpster there. >> it's 6:32. just a few hours the state supreme court will meet in san francisco to consider whether governor schwarzenegger has the power to order state worker furlough days. three lawsuits were filed by about 114,000 workers after the governor ordered them to take unpaid days off in the first round of furloughs. the lawsuits claim the governor doesn't have the authority to order furloughs for workers who are covered by union contracts. state law also sets the work week at 40 hours. but the governor's office argues the constitution gives him the authority to order furloughs to manage a budget crisis. a lower court ruled in favor of the governor in all three cases. >> today santa clara officials are about to take another big step in their efforts to bring the san francisco 49ers to the south bay. this morning santa clara city planners are expected to approve zoning changes needed to build a stadium next to the great american theme park. design plans for the $937

million facility is also expected to be approved. santa clara voters okayed the deal in june. now city leaders need to finalizes the details so the team can line up financing for construction. if all goes according to planned, the team would open the 2014 season in the south bay. the a's moving ahead to build a new park in san jose even though they lack league approval to move anywhere. a kansas city-based architecture home has been hired to design a new home. oakland has proposed three waterfront stadium sites. fremont has also pitched a stadium at the former nummi newton plant. >> new parking meters covering 1300 parking spaces in ten neighborhoods. the san francisco chronicle reports officials will start planning the meters this fall in the most congested neighborhoods including fisherman's wharf,

lower knob hill and the area around at&t park. the new meters will accept credit cards, debit cars, parking cards and coins, of course. rates will be programmed depending on demand and time of day. >> state officials are looking to collect what's believed to be the largest fine ever south against a u.s. health insurer. regulators are seeking up to $9.9 billion in fines against pasif-care. all told regulators say they violated state law 1 million times. they accused a health insurer of cutting costs any means possible calling it a story of intense corporate greed. they reject the state's assertions saying the allegations are simply not true and that pasafa-care, it could

be decided next month. >> drizzly in months like mike told us it would be. >> mike, you saw the airport delays, too, this morning. >> absolutely. thank you very much, guys. appreciate that. yeah, definitely drizzle out there. airport delays and cooler weather. today still going to be the coolest day of the week. san francisco may gain one degree today to 61. oakland's going to be 63 again but look at the continual drop in temperatures around concord at 2. redwood city 7, san jose 8 and santa rosa 9 degrees cooler than yesterday. about 12 hours, 42 minutes and 29 seconds of sunshine if we see it. cloudy for the better part of the day. still cloudy at 8:00. still some drizzle. temperatures holding in the mid to upper 50s. by noon we start to punch holes in that cloud deck. temperatures will be slow to

respond. low to mid-60s around bay. still 58 half moon bay. by 4:00 a partly sunny away from the coast where it will be cloudy with patchy drizzle possible. half moon bay at 57. san francisco and oakland at 61. the rest of us mid to upper 60s. high pressure moves in tomorrow. it will scrub the sky clean of some of the clouds. we'll see more sunshine and about 2 to 4 degrees of warmth and add more warmth friday, about another 6 degrees warmer. temperatures close to seasonal during the weekend for the afternoon hours. let's turn it over to frances. a lot to talk about. >> yeah. things pretty backed up at the bay bridge toll plaza. with this live shot, backed up beyond the 880 overcrossing. another live shot for you of the maze. so traffic is flowing well through the maze. that's westbound 80 there heading towards the bay bridge. so the backup towards the foot of the maze. about a 20-minute wait. let's check out the accident in

oakland. northbound 880 approaching 980. an injury crash blocking a lane. but this one not doing much damage so far. the one we've been watching all morning just keeps getting worse. westbound 580 through livermore, 5 mph as you make your way out of the altamont pass towards airway. the cleanup continues because of this earlier accident. the left lane has been blocked. they hope to have it reopened by 7:00. meantime the drive time now an extra hour from 205 to 680. 74 minutes where it normally takes about 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes of traffic at this time. also a little sluggish westbound 4 out of antioch. eric, kristen. >> frances, thank you very much. it's 6:38. >> crunching the numbers. still ahead, new information exactly how much h. p.'s former ceo will be making when and if he takes a new job at oracle. >> also trading is underway on wall street. we'll have a live report from the new york stock exchange straight ahead. first up an early look at the big board. you see the dow is up more than

36 points. >> also the latest on developing news. the internal report just released that offers the best look yet who b.p. says is to blame for the massive gulf oil spill. >> it's news any new parent needs to hear.

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sierra, breezy in tahoe today and also talking about scattered thunderstorms and a snow level that will drop down to around 8500 feet tonight. kristen. >> mike, thanks a lot. 6:43. the f.b.i. says investigators have found no explosives aboard a los angeles-bound thai airways flight in which a bomb threat was found scrawled on a bathroom mirror. the jet originated in bangkok and landed in l.a. before 8:00 last night. the jet was taken to a remote area of the airport. authorities searched the plane, screened the luggage and interviewed all 200 people on board. the bomb threat was written in poorly worded english and spotted on a bathroom mirror on the plane. los angeles police fired tear gas to break up a crowd of people throwing rocks at them and setting fire near downtown l.a. late overnight. it was the second straight night of protests over an officer who shot and killed an immigrant with a knife sunday afternoon. police have promised a full investigation.

but witnesses tell them the officer acted in self-defense. that's what the officers are saying. 22 people were arrested during last night's protest. >> within the last two hours, oil giant b.p. released its intern report on the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. it says multiple companies and work teams contributed to the spill that dumped millions of gallons of oil into the water and destroyed wildlife. it did defend the design itself. b.p. took some of the blame from the explosion that killed 11 and started off the worst oil spill in u.s. history. the oil giant faces hundreds of lawsuits and billions of dollars in liabilities. >> former h. p. ceo mark hurd and his new possible salary as the co-president at oracle are making headlines, getting altogether buzz on wall street. >> bloomberg's jane king is live at the new york stock exchange with all the details. >> hi, eric and kristen.

good news/bad news situation for the tech exec mark hurd. oracle will pay nearly a million a year in salary plus a bonus of what could be as much as 10 million as president. the bad news is former employer hewlett-packard is suing to stop him from working at oracle. h. p. said hurd signed nondisclosure agreements and claimed it would be impossible to be oracle's president without divulges h. p.'s trade secrets. it will make it difficult for oracle to cooperate with h. p. blame others and your stock goes up. the rig owner contract halliburton with b. p.'s own engineers are responsible for the drilling disaster that triggered what became the nation's largest oil spill and b. p. shares on the rise after this issued that report. we are higher here today. had that lower close yesterday. still concern about europe's

debt crisis easing a bit today. that's helping things out. we have green arrows across the board. the silicon valley index is trading up here this morning. and could apple really sell 28 million i-pads next year? that's what an analyst tells apple insider. the analysts said no evidence i-pad sales are hurting the success of mac sales but i-pad sales are taking a bite out of p. c. sales. live at new york stock exchange, i'm jane king, bloomberg news. >> jane, thank you very much. have a great day. >> okay. >> 6:46 our time. the insurance institute for highway safety has just released its latest test results for children's car booster seats. overall the results are good. more highly rated seats than ever before but the tests revealed some important information that every parent should know before strapping in their children. abc's diana has details. >> when it comes to booster seats, parents have dozens of products to choose from. >> the problem is there's no

standard how a booster seat should work. a particular booster will work with their kids in their vehicle. >> why does fit matter? in the case of a crash, an improperly fitted booster seat could lead to serious injury or even death. the insurance institute for highway safety tested the safety belt fit of 72 different booster seats. they used a crash test dummy representing an average-sized six-year-old. >> the way we evaluate booster seats is assess a range of different heights it. >> 21 booster seats were rated best bet. seven were rated good bets, a big increase over last year's results. one of the institute's best bets is the harmony secure comfort deluxe. >> you can see the lap belt lies flat across the upper nithighs, not here on the stomach. keeps the belt in the middle of the shoulder. >> researchers found eight of the booster seats did not meet their standards, including the

even flow generation 65. >> the main problem is the lap belt is too high on the stomach. another issue is that the shoulder belt is too close to the neck. plus comfort issue. the child's liable to wiggle out and won't be in position. >> the rest of the booster seats fell somewhere in the middle. the institute determined most fit well across the lap but not over the shoulder. >> so what should parents do if their booster seat is not recommended. test the seat out to see it fits in the right places to make sure it's safe to use. abc news, los angeles. >> and for a complete list of the best, good and not recommended seats, go to our website, abc7news.com, and look under "see it on tv." >> this morning we are halfway through a celestial double feature. two asteroids will fly past the earth today at distances closest to the moon. a 42 footer passed by us just after 2:00 this morning.

the second one, about 23 feet across, will whiz by about 2 p.m. this afternoon. other asteroids have passed this close but it is rare for two to be spotted zooming by at the same time. >> power lines downed by high winds are being blamed for starting dozens of fires of that destroyed entire neighborhoods in detroit. neighbors say this fire started in a garage and quickly spread to nearby homes. in total dozens of fires burned through at least three neighborhoods but incredibly no injuries have been reported. large parts of detroit remain blocked out this morning and authorities say the city's understaffed fire department is stretched to its limit. meanwhile a wildfire burning in colorado has destroyed 92 structures but not clear how many are homes. the 7100 acre fire was started on monday. burning west of boulder. it isn't close to containment. officials say it will be at least two days before any of the 3,000 people forced out of their homes will be allowed to return.

authorities are investigating reports that the fire started when a car ran into a propane tank. >> back to those asteroids whizzing by, we talked with president morgan freeman's office. everything's okay, no injuries reported. >> no deep impact? >> no deep impact. >> no armageddon. really. hard to drive those trucks on a 23 foot diameter asteroid. >> hard to land on those. we had a little fun reminiscing about movies. let's talk about fall. reminisce about it a little bit. good morning to you. it is 6:50. we're seeing a few breaks in the clouds. that's what we can expect as the afternoon wears off. because of the clouds so low and the drizzle so prevalent earlier this morning, still have flight arrival delays into sfo. temperatures because of the cloud cover are up. most of us upper 50s to near 60. 55 san francisco and half moon bay and los gatos at 56. cloudy conditions, drizzle hanging around the monterey and inland with temperatures upper 60s also. first of all more clouds today

and the coolest day we'll have some drizzle. kind of linger along the coast during the afternoon hours. drying and clearing as the cold front moves to the south. that drying and clearing will happen from north to south tonight. warmer and drier and brighter days for this weekend as high pressure takes over and keeps our temperatures pretty close to average. today well below average by 10 to 15 degrees. looking at upper 60s to low 70s under a partly cloudy sky. partly sunny on the east bay shore. mid to upper 60s oakland, 63 degrees. south bay partly sunny, upper 60s. not much of a change. 67 to 68 san jose. on the peninsula partly sunny, mid to upper 60s here. notice over at the coast clouds, drizzle, raw day. mid to upper 50s for you. could have some drizzle in downtown san francisco this afternoon. but mostly cloudy, 61. 60 south san francisco. upper 60s to low 70s, partly cloudy at the coast. cloudy conditions the monterey bay and inland with the best

chance of seeing organized wet weather as the cold front moves through your neighborhood. mid to upper 60s inland. a cool night out at the coliseum. cloudy, a little humid. some moisture hanging in the air. 58 by the time the game is over. that first pitch is 7:05. temperatures coolest in the north bay with low 50s. the rest of us low to mid-50s. can you tell where the cold front is? the arcing nature of the clouds. jet stream pushing them through dropping that cold front on top of us moving through right now. that's why we're seeing some of the drizzle, heaviest around san francisco. 6 hundredths of an inch this morning. cold front moves through by the afternoon hours. showers dance all around us. drizzle at the coast but most of the wet weather away from us. overnight you see the clearing taking place. best chance of drizzle will be down around the monterey bay. we'll see increasing sunshine tomorrow afternoon and about 2 to 4 degrees warmer from the coast to inland.

about another 2 to 6 degrees warmer on friday. over the weekend low to mid-80s inland. low to mid-70s around the bay. 60s at the coast. >> two major hot spots. one i've been talking about all morning, westbound 580. another 7 minutes. but the ride pretty much just jammed out of tracy. the drive time is now 88 minutes, basically an hour and a half from 205 to 680. that's one spot you may want to avoid all together, take ace train if you can or even bart this morning because you want to avoid the bay bridge toll plaza. a live shot for you. backed up into the maze. this is all because of an earlier stalled bus. they cleared the bus stall at around 6:00 but now they're saying that the right lane at treasure island may still be blocked because of an earlier fluid spill from this spot. just found out about this. look at the live shot now of the maze. traffic there westbound 80 jammed already through the maze and that's westbound 580 jammed

beyond the top of the maze. plan on a good 25 minute wait and you can always get the latest by going to our website abc7news.com. you'll find it under the bay area traffic link. kristen? >> frances, thanks a lot. 6:54. this morning a tough new noise ordinance goes into effect. bans 55 decibels prohibiting the use of leaf blowers which can be louder than that. they have been equipped with noise meters to respond to complaints. >> men, you may want to work on your dance moves. research indicates that men who dance like this are not only considered more attractive but more healthy. >> researchers in england created this animation of what it calls good dancing. the good dancers and a lot of neck and head moves, they also perform better in chemical

testing analyzing overall health. that's compared to bad dancers that twitched and shuffled around. the researchers dubbed this dad dancing. (laughter) >> i think we need to watch "dancing with the stars" and get the best dancing. 6:55. let's recap our top stories. police hope a sketch will help lead them to the suspect responsible for a string of arson fires. >> terry mcsweeney live in sunnyvale with the latest. terry? >> investigators say this guy has set 15 fires since may. nine of them last wednesday. all these fires around where i am. old san francisco road and south fair oaks. and now they have a sketch of this man and need some help. take a look at this guy. hispanic, about 5-9, maybe 19, 20 years of age with a slender build. they have this sketch because he was spotted leaving the fires, running from the fires last wednesday. a week ago today he set a pickup truck on fire and there was a man inside it. police helped rescue that man. another fire set that day,

trash, dumpsters and a couple vehicles. investigators say his fires are getting bigger. he needs to be stopped. lots of apartment buildings out here at around south fair oaks and old san francisco road and that is a major concern with an arsonist on the loose. four investigators assigned to this case full-time. that's how bad they want to find this guy before somebody gets hurt. if you can help after looking at that description, looking at that sketch, police give sunnyvale p. d. or fire a call. they'd love to get assistance on this. live in sunnyvale, terry mcsweeney, abc 7 news. >> terry, thanks a lot. >> checking out another top story, good news for three richmond schools. last night the city council voted unanimously to pay $1.5 million to keep kennedy high school and two elementary schools open through the 2011-2012 school year. the council told school officials this second bailout will be the final bailout. >> one final look at weather and traffic. let's start with mike and drizzle this morning. >> yeah. recap what's going on outside.

if you're just leaving, we have 48 minute flight arrival delays into sfo. drizzle fell in san francisco. temperatures in the 50s to low 60s. this afternoon pockets of sunshine but low to mid-60s around san francisco and oakland. upper 60s to low 70s for the rest of us. warming trend starts tomorrow. frances? >> final check. bay bridge toll plaza backed up into the maze because of an earlier stall and apparently we have a live shot of the incline section. the right lane still blocked in the tunnel. this is actually the oakland maze. backed up. trying to get that right lane only the next 15 minutes. good news, all lanes just reopened on westbound 580 at airway. the left lane was blocked most of the morning but still causing hour-long delays. so plan on an hour-long wait or take ace train or maybe practice your dance moves while you're in traffic. (laughter) >> and they've been doing that! . not me. i don't do that. that's it for this edition of the abc 7 morning news. >> a local update at